Agenda and minutes

1.1  The Chair welcomed all those present to the meeting.

RESOLVED:

To appoint James O’Neill, Borough Commander for Hackney, London Fire Brigade as a Member of the Board.

3.1  There were no declarations of interest.

Previous responses to questions relating to Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are attached for information.

4.1  The minutes of the previous meeting held on 29 September 2023 were

 agreed as a correct record.

6.1  The Principal Public Health Specialist updated the Board on the Action

  Tracker.

RESOLVED:

·  To note progress on the action tracker.

To hear the questions from members of the public.

Responses to the questions will follow.

7.1  The Chair responded to the questions posed by Clair Battaglino and Matt

Albrow in regard to Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. (The response is attached to these minutes)

7.2  The Chair responded to questions from Malcolm Alexander in regard to the ‘Crisis in the NHS’. (The response is attached to these minutes)

7.1  The Senior Professional Adviser introduced the City & Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report for 2021/22, setting out examples of the impact, evidence, assurance and learning arising from the safeguarding  arrangements in the City of London and the London Borough of Hackney.

7.2   The Senior Professional Adviser highlighted the following:

·  That 2020 had been a challenging year;

·  There was recognition of the work of all partners in making children safer;

·  There was a commitment to the core areas such as the safeguarding first philosophy and understanding the context of the children’s lives,

·  The focus had been expanded onto anti-racism and a partnership response;

·  There had been good progress in responding to the cyber attack;

·  There was increased focus on early help and prevention;

·  A significant number of young children were accessing universal services;

·  In terms of a child protection patterns, there had been an overall growth in contacts and referrals with an emphasis on mental health;

·  Partnership now had an improved framework with an emphasis on local safeguarding practice reviews.

7.3  Frances Haste sought clarification on the placement of children to other

parts of the country and in regard to children that were lost to the system.

7.4  Councillor Kennedy expressed concern that no progress had been made

in regard to the unregistered education settings with no implementation of legislation in this regard.

7.5  The Group Director, Children and Education told that Board that 90% of those children in the care of the Council were placed with foster families. Most placements were in the local area, but some children were placed more widely with increased scrutiny in such circumstances. It was confirmed that there were good processes in place for tracking children who go missing from care. At present there were no long term children missing from care.

7.6  The Senior Professional Adviser told the Board that the City of London was providing significant support to resettled families with no indication that children were going missing. Little progress had been made in regard to unregistered educational settings with the proposed legislation not being implemented. A protocol was in place to provide multi agency oversight and co-ordination of settings.

7.7  Mayor Glanville highlighted:

·  That it was disappointing that there had been little progress in regard to unregistered educational settings; 

·  That London Councils was carrying out much work on missing children from the asylum system;

·  That the Council Tax duty had been removed for Foster Carers to assist in growing the network;

·  A Pan-London network was considering how to improve security for children, keeping children close to the Borough that they came from.

7.8  Deputy Mayor Bramble told the Board that she had raised the matter of

unregistered educational settings at the Local Government Association

together with the lessons to be learned from experience.  She confirmed

effective communication with  children in the Borough with good

knowledge of their whereabouts. 

RESOLVED:

·  To note the report.

8.1  The Consultant in Public Health introduced the report providing the Board with an update on commissioning activities for children and young people in Hackney by Public Health and highlighting key strands of work within the Children, Young People, Maternity and Families Integrated Commissioning Work stream.

8.2  The Consultant in Public Health highlighted the following:

·  The Board was asked to feed into the development of the joint framework/

·  To support the successful integration of children and families services for

·  Hackney Population 0-19 (25 for those who are owed a statutory

·  responsibility)

·  Key Commissioning Updates, including the Super Youth Hub, Children and Young people with complex needs - Special Educational Needs;

·  Proposal for a Joint Childcare and Family Integration Framework;

·  Delivering the framework;

8.3  The Board was requested to consider the following questions:

? What is the Board’s vision for successful integration across the children, young people, maternity and families portfolio and what are the greatest opportunities for achieving this?

? What are the key limiting factors to successful integration for children, young people, maternity and families? Are the problem statements outlined in section 4.7.3 accurate and comprehensive?

? Reflecting on the problem statements outlined in the report, what key design principles should be adopted in order to achieve collective improvement.

9.1  The Head of Early Years, Early Help and Wellbeing introduced the report. Family Hubs were a place-based way of joining up locally in the planning and delivery of family services. They bring services together to improve access, connections between families, professionals, services, and providers, and put relationships and strength-based practice at the heart of family support. Hackney was one of 75 local authorities pre-selected to receive Government funding to support infants, children and families through the family-hubs-and-start-for-life-programme.

9.1  The Head of Early Years, Early Help and Wellbeing highlighted the following:

·  Children and Family Hubs;-

·  Case for change -The objective of the Start for Life and Family Hubs programme was congruent with the Health and Wellbeing Board aims to improve the health and wellbeing of local people and tackle health inequalities;

·  Governance arrangements had been put in place with a delivery group to drive the initiative;

·  The initiative involved all partners who work with children - 0-19  ( or up to 25 if they have a disability)

·  Project Initiation and development - March -  May 2022;

·  Workshops and engagement processes - June - October 2022;

·  Picking up on the gaps in engagement, focusing for instance on fathers and community organisations;

·  Design/Testing - April - March 2023;

·  Implementation - October 2023 - March 2024;

·  Emerging design principles, i.e commitment to place based service delivery and co-location, a shared outcome framework across the system, etc;

·  Transition from 0 - 19 system - home learning, parent and carer panels, etc;

·  Charedi Community - census data is anticipated to be unreliable - paper forms for the census only allowed space for 3 children; 

·  Key themes for parents of children of all ages - accessibility of spaces, cost of living crisis, better links with schools, mental health and wellbeing support for parents;

·  Challenges, including prescriptive government programme, interactive delivery programme and funding drawdown, etc.

11.1  The Head of Policy and Strategic Delivery highlighted the following:

·  The plan would provide a framework to ensure consistent action and accountability across the Council. Partners would also be asked to adopt the same approach; 

·  The action plan was aligned to the statement that had been adopted by London Councils Chief Executive's, the development of which was led by a working group chaired by Hackney; 

·  Tackling structural and systemic racism underpinned the approach and all partners were required to focus on this and on what they needed to change in their structures, systems and institutions;

·  Work was scoped out by the Health Inequalities Group which had helped mobilise taking an anti-racist approach to Neighbourhoods - work led by Children's and Educations focused on anti-racism, which would also take forward in part the legacy of improving outcomes for young black men work;

·  Co-production was taking place on this matter;

·  Key measures of success would be assessed;

·  The need for a shared understanding of racism, involving all in the shared outcome approach;

·  New Equality Plan for the Council to be implemented.

11.2  The Project and Service Improvement Lead highlighted the following: 

·  The Joint Anti-Racism Action Plan builds on work in Children and Education since the Black Lives Matter motion in 2020;

·  The aims were to bring a sharper focus to existing activity/ to add value and impetus/ provide a centralised mechanism for overseeing, scrutinising and driving activity to reduce disproportionality and improving outcomes for black children and families; 

·  Development of the Joint Action Plan with 4 priorities ; 

·  The introduction of comprehensive governance arrangements reporting to the Group Directors Senior Management Team on a monthly basis and the establishment of an Anti-Racism Reference Group;

·  Next Steps - Key Milestones 

-  Children and Education responses to post conference recommendations finalised - February 2023

   -  Detailed action plan drafted in February 2023;

  -  Task and Finish Group commences;

  -  Anti Racism Animation Film launched

  -  2nd Anti-Racism Conference

12.2  Mayor Glanville highlighted:

·  That the approach taken was coherent;

·  Trust between professional disciplines, partners and communities was critical to the delivery of the plan and service redesign;

·  Recognition that need still existed that had not yet been met; 

·  There was a need to continually assess work undertaken;

·  A model that serves a broader range of vulnerable people - 0-25, some of which had not have accessed the existing model before;

·  The need to consider how the approach links back into the strategic plan and the political governance in the Council together with the Integrated Care Board, the Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the Hackney Young Futures Commission;

·  The need to involve young people in a meaningful way, in particular around mental health;

·  The need to consider how partners engage and connect;

·  Ensuring continuity across cohorts.

12.3  Councillor Fajana-Thomas highlighted the following:

·  To welcome that young people would be involved in shaping the Young Person's Hub;

·  The importance of involving young people in the decision making process;

·  The need to focus on neighbourhoods as the hub will be more necessary in some of these than others;

·  That racism was driven by inequalities. 

12.4  Deputy Mayor Bramble highlighted the following:

·  That there was a need for a safe space for people to have a conversations on race and to challenge;

·  The need for a framework to support staff in an often emotional conversation;

·  12.5  Frances Haste highlighted that the Community and Voluntary Sector (CVS);

·  was carrying out much work with children and families. She stressed the need for a sustainable funding model and asked for clarification on the funding model to involve the Community and Voluntary Sector (CVS) in anti-racism and the introduction of family hubs.

12.6  The Chair stressed the importance of how the CVS embedded anti-

rascism in its work.  The Neighbourhood Health and Care Board had agreed to continue to fund the Community and Voluntary Sector in working in partnership across City and Hackney, creating the capacity to consider how the anti-racism work becomes embedded in the work of all partners.

12.7  The Children, Young People, Maternity and Families Programme

Manager told the Board that work was ongoing to structure the Oversight

Group to ensure that young people can co design and steer its direction with meaningful involvement. A number of young people were currently involved in the development of the agenda and priorities. 

12.8  The Consultant in Public Health told the Board that design principles would be developed to reflect how the involvement of the VCS is included in the design as it was very relevant to all the integration projects that would be taken forward. 

12.9  The Head of Early Years, Early Help and Wellbeing highlighted that the

role of the CVS was recognised. Workforce development included the entire system, including the CVS. The CVS was currently being consulted on work on attachment between fathers and children. The voices of young people would be considered as part of the process. 

12.10  The Head of Policy and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.